Day: June 23, 2005

Follow along:Here’s a link to posts and flickr photos being tagged with the “gnomedex” tag. Unlike SXSW when I continuously blogged about not blogging, I think I’ll do more posts here — primarily to point to others around me.

Okay. It took me a bit longer than anticipated, but here is the last of my posts regarding How iTunes will change everything podcasting. As it appears the launch of iTunes 4.9 is being fast-tracked, I figured I have little time left to procrastinate on this, my “what can go wrong when Apple supports podcasting” entry.

In previous posts, I have outlined numerous ways — mostly positive — I believe the support of RSS enclosures and the recognition of “podcasting” as a viable “content category” on Apple Computer’s iTunes platform will dramatically change podcasting. However, here are a few of the concerns I have about what negative things can happen when podcasting becomes “iTunified,” a list of potential unintended consequences Apple adding RSS enclosure support and a podcast tab to iTunes:

1. Some people will start thinking “podcasts” are found exclusively on iTunes’s baked-in podcast tab:

As much as you and I have heard the term, a vast majority of people will learn about podcasting when Apple puts it on the front page of iTunes. In the hype surrounding that launch (as hype surrounds everything Apple launches), many podcast listening newbies will think the only podcasts available via iTunes will be those “baked” into the podcast tab. (It should be noted, I don’t know if there will actually be a baked-in list of podcasters; I’m merely assuming there will be as that’s what is offered now on iTunes’ radio tab. Here are some screenshots of what the podcast-supporting iTunes version is supposed to be like.) I assume, based on my unscientific research of asking people, that the “baked in” problem already occurs with the current Radio tab in iTunes. It is my opinion that most users of iTunes do not know that any MP3 streaming source can be bookmarked in a playlist and played via iTunes. I fear the same confusion will occur with podcasting. For this reason, it will be especially important for podcasters who are not on the “official” podcast tab to educate their listeners that a one-click action is all it will take to enable them to subscribe to future podcast posts.

2. The term “podcast” will be co-opted by those who don’t know that the “-cast” part of it means RSS syndication:

As I’ve noted earlier, posting audio files on the web is nothing new. Calling the posting of audio files on the web “podcasting” misses the point of what the RSS-enclosure facet of podcasting means in terms of, well, I’ll skip words like asynchronous and say, simply, that it misses the cool feature that makes podcasting like TiVo for web-distributed audio.

3. The podcasting “movement” era will end:

As much as I’ve displayed in the thousands of words I’ve written on this topic, I still fear that before becoming “an Apple thing,” podcasting needed more time as a movement before becoming a product. As I’ve said before, the podcasting concept has been successfully spread because it has been a grassroots movement — not a marketing campaign. No company — well, perhaps with the exception of Apple — could have pulled off in ten months what the podcasting community has done since last October. If podcasting becomes an “Apple thing,” that confusion may cause some slow-down in the movement, especially on the corporate podcasting front where things related to Apple, even a Windows version of iTunes (due to bandwidth considerations) are met with resistance by the “IT folks.” For example, I know a large company that has banned iTunes from their work force due to bandwidth challenges. This would be an ideal company to use corporate podcasting. Because, however, it will be viewed as an “iTunes thing,” it will be dismissed before being considered.

4. People will think podcasting is something you buy:

From rumors and reports, it appears the first iteration of podcasting on iTunes will not focus on the availability of “pay” podcasts via the iTunes Store. However, as I’ve shown in an earlier post, a system already is in place for Apple to facilitate the micropayment transactions necessary for a podcasting economy. However, the commercialization of podcasting may be misinterpreted by those who are new to the concept. This will lead, inevitably, to over predicting the financial potential of podcasting which will lead to the follow-up disappointment when the podcasting economy does not develop at that rate. (See a long-ago rexblog post concerning Paul Saffo’s concept, “micro-myopia”). Despite the “iTunes will allow you sell podcasts hype” you’ll be hearing in a couple of weeks, the financial impact of podcasting will more ambiguous than the mere sum of transactions.

5. Podcasting party poopers will show up:

I hate to say out-loud this final fear. I really do. But when podcasting goes from the edge of the Internet (sorry, folks, that’s where you are if you’re reading about this topic) to the center of the internet (iTunes), the lawyers will appear on the scene as record company executives are going to realize that podcasting has the potential not only to grow the music industry dramatically, it has the potential to reduce their significance. Somebody’s going to wake up and say, “Hey, when one person can distribute MP3s to hundreds of people who simple click on a button, well, that sounds an awful lot like things we want to sue.”

Some people always try to ruin a good thing.

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A Post Script: In an earlier post, I listed several types of podcasts formats/programming/content I thought could catch on. That post led to lots of e-mail and trackbacks with some great ideas. Alot of them were related to classroom recordings and educational/training audio. Several people e-mailed me suggesting that sermons would be great podcasts — as the son of a minister, I agree. Some folks e-mailed me to say there are already tour-oriented podcasts and I even received an e-mail from my friend Ellen Pryor at Nashville’s Frist Center for the Visual Arts saying the museum was jumping into podcasting.

The point is, with the new tools to create audio files, Odeo, for example and a plug in for my favorite software, NoteTaker or popping a Griffin iTalk onto your iPod, or using tools like Garage Band, it’s just a matter of time, folks. Get ready.

In Seattle: Touched down here late last nighit for Gnomedex that starts later. I get to catch up on lots of stuff that’s been piling up — including a few rexblog posts I’ve written but couldn’t post yesterday (bad wi-fi mojo at both BWI and Midway airports) but now I’m going for a jog around this beautiful city. Tomorrow, it appears Microsoft will be demoing some cool RSS-related development. Dave Winer previews them with a thumbs up.

Launched in August, 2000, RexBlog.com is the personal blog of Rex Hammock, founder/ceo of Hammock Inc., a customer media and marketing services company founded in 1991 in Nashville. Rex is also founder/helper-in-chief of SmallBusiness.com.(...)